St Oswald's Catholic Primary School, Longton

About St Oswald's Catholic Primary School, Longton

St Oswald's Catholic Primary School in Longton holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained consistently across its two most recent inspections. The school's most informative exam metric is the Key Stage 2 combined reading, writing and maths expected standard, where 64% of pupils met the benchmark in the 2023/24 academic year. This places the school slightly above the Lancashire local authority average of 60% for the same measure, indicating solid academic performance relative to its peers. In the South Ribble area, the school ranks 21st out of 35 primary schools on this metric, putting it in the 60th percentile locally. Nationally, it sits in the 46th percentile, while within the North West region it ranks 907th out of 2,065 primary schools. The school's average scores in reading and maths both sit at 104, with 75% of pupils reaching the expected standard in each subject individually. A smaller proportion, 22%, achieved the higher standard in maths, while 25% did so in reading and 11% in writing.

Ofsted's 2023 ungraded inspection confirmed the school continues to be Good, with leadership and management also rated Good. The previous graded inspection in 2014 gave the same overall effectiveness rating, alongside Good for leadership and management and a slightly lower rating for early years provision. The school's Progress 8 scores are not available, but the Key Stage 2 outcomes provide a clear picture of pupil attainment. With 64% reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, the school performs above the Lancashire average but sits below the top-performing local primaries like Crawford Village Primary School, which achieved a ranking score of 100. The school's 8% of pupils reaching the higher standard in all three subjects suggests a focus on securing the expected level for the majority rather than pushing large numbers to the highest tier.

St Oswald's is a voluntary aided Roman Catholic primary school for mixed pupils aged 4 to 11, with a current roll of 250 pupils against a capacity of 245, meaning it is effectively full. The school is oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, it received 78 applications for 34 places, with 33 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.29. Just 6.4% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well below the national average. Facilities include a forest school, sensory room, chapel, sports hall, library and playing fields, and the school offers a range of clubs including drama, choir, gardening and science club. Sports provision covers football, cricket, dance, tennis, gymnastics, cross country and rounders. The school supports pupils with a range of special educational needs, including dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing impairment and physical disability. This is a faith-based school with a strong local reputation, suited to Catholic families or those comfortable with a religious ethos, and its oversubscription means early application is essential.

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